The summer sun blazed, and cicadas shrilled without pause.
Li Qu ground ink and took up her brush at the writing desk. Beside her, Hongguo fanned her, while an ice basin sat nearby.
After writing down what she needed, Li Qu blew the ink dry and handed the list to Hongguo. “You don’t need to attend to me here. Go and gather everything I asked for.”
Hongguo took the list and withdrew. Li Qu spread out another sheet of paper.
First, she needed to figure out why Zhou Jin had kept her behind.
Only by knowing the reason could she solve the problem.
She dipped her brush in ink and wrote two words on the paper: the reason.
Then she drew a circle.
The circle represented Zhou Jin.
To learn the reason, she inevitably had to understand what had happened to Zhou Jin, understand his thoughts, and understand the man himself.
At present, Li Qu’s knowledge of Zhou Jin was limited to the various praises offered by the Zhou family: that he was handsome and aloof, noble and pure; that he possessed extraordinary talent and had made a name for himself at a young age.
Then there were the maids’ unreliable speculations—claims that he was impotent, that he preferred men, and so on.
She set down her brush and stared at the circle.
What remained was what she herself had seen.
He was high above others, had killed countless people, was lustful and lecherous, and had accumulated immense prestige throughout Zhou Residence.
Once everything was mixed together and summarized, the result was almost blank.
She did not understand him.
She put down her pen, rose, and let Cuiguo tidy the writing desk before going to the couch for a short nap.
She would take it one step at a time. One day, she would uncover the enemy’s true nature.
In her haze, Li Qu seemed to return to her previous life, to her warm and loving home. Then she seemed to return to the moment she had first opened her eyes after being born in this life. A round-faced old woman saw that she was a girl, and the delight in her eyes instantly turned into a cold glint.
“Another girl? Drown her. That’s one less mouth to feed!”
It had been a disastrous start to her transmigration.
The stench of urine choking her nose and mouth, along with the suffocating pressure in her chest, jolted her awake.
She suddenly sat up on the couch. Because she moved too quickly, a warm current surged from her lower abdomen and spilled forth.
“Concubine, you’re awake?” Nanny Xu said with a beaming smile as she wrung out a cloth and wiped Li Qu’s face.
Li Qu gave herself a quick wipe, then went to the bathing room and changed into a cotton menstrual pad stuffed with wood ash.
Unless one was a principal wife or an honored person such as a legitimate daughter, with an unlimited supply of pure cotton pads, concubines and favored concubines received pads made of cotton mixed with wood ash.
As for what maids used, it was impossible to imagine.
Of course, if one had money, one could use whatever one wanted.
Li Qu had silver, but she was trapped at the moment. Unless absolutely necessary, she did not want to access her bank accounts recklessly.
She was worried that Xiao Cong was keeping an eye on her account information and would use it to track her down.
She did have silver in cash, but none of it was on her.
Even if she wanted to spend it, she couldn’t.
Just as Li Qu came out of the bathing room, Nanny Xu hurried over again. “Everything you asked for earlier has been prepared.”
“That includes the tools you left in the side hall of Shou’an Hall. After asking permission at Shou’an Hall, I took the liberty of having them moved here.”
“They’re all in the side room next door.”
For the first time, Li Qu looked seriously at Nanny Xu. “Really?”
“Please come and see, Concubine.”
Li Qu went to the side room and, sure enough, found all the tools she had previously used to make moisturizing water, rouge, and lipstick. Everything had been brought over.
She looked at Nanny Xu and gave her a thumbs-up. “You get a like from me.”
This set of tools was no ordinary thing. The distillation flask alone had taken Xiao Cong considerable effort to obtain.
These were the belongings she had planned to use to establish herself in Wan County.
Seeing the smile on Li Qu’s face, Nanny Xu immediately felt that she had done the right thing and struck while the iron was hot.
“Weren’t you planning to visit Shou’an Hall? I took the liberty of preparing some fabric for you. You could embroider Old Madam Zhou a round fan when you have time. She likes your double-sided embroidery.”
“A forehead band would work too. Among the things Third Master Zhou sent this morning was an emerald. You could set it into the forehead band. When Old Madam wears it out, it will reflect well on you too.”
Li Qu accepted Nanny Xu’s suggestion. “I’ll start embroidering tomorrow.”
Today, she had to make facial masks first.
Without trusted aides, she could cultivate her own.
She had memorized this skincare craft by rote after confirming her relationship with Xiao Cong and using his influence to read the books in the library at Prince Yan’s Residence.
Ever since leaving Lijia Village—that closed-off, backward place that consumed people—she had hungered for every kind of knowledge in this world that could help her survive.
There were very few ways for a woman to establish herself.
Working as a makeup artist was one of the few professions that allowed a woman to earn money without selling herself into servitude.
How to make a woman beautiful, how to preserve her beauty, and how to conceal someone’s beauty—she had memorized all of it.
She still remembered how the young ladies of Prince Yan’s Residence had mocked her for taking the lowly, obsequious path. She still remembered how Xiao Cong had teased her, saying that she was already beautiful and had no need to study such things.
The sparrow could never understand the swan’s ambitions.
She could choose not to make a living this way.
But she had to possess the ability to do so.
When dinnertime arrived, Li Qu’s hands still had not stopped working.
Nanny Xu couldn’t help advising her, “Concubine, eating irregularly can damage your spleen and stomach.”
A concubine without family status or background had to maintain a healthy body.
Otherwise, just when her master wanted to be intimate with her, she might come down with stomach pain, toothache, or a slipped disc…
“It’ll be ready soon. Don’t rush me.” Li Qu did not even raise her head.
So Nanny Xu waited a while longer.
Seeing a mass of greenish, inky-black matter in the bowl where Li Qu was grinding medicines, she couldn’t help frowning. “That isn’t something to eat, is it?”
The concubine had asked for quite a few medicinal ingredients and foodstuffs that afternoon.
“No. Please prepare some brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone for me, Nanny.”
While Nanny Xu went to gather the items, Li Qu finished filling her facial mask into jars.
She then took up her brush and wrote out a prescription for both internal use and external application.
Once everything was done, she rose and stretched her limbs. “Sitting for too long hurts the spine.”
Nanny Xu was puzzled. “What are you making all this for, Concubine?”
“To give to people.” Li Qu pointed to the small rouge jars she had prepared earlier. “Nanny, open them and have a look. They should have set by now. The two blue jars are for you.”
“I noticed that you usually like to wear dark-colored clothes, so I mixed restrained, light shades for you.”
Nanny Xu was overwhelmed by the favor. “F-for me?”
“There are gifts for everyone. The two red jars are for Hongguo, and the two green jars are for Cuiguo. I guarantee the quality is no worse than the products sold at Xianbao Studio.”
The two senior maids were also overwhelmed by the favor.
“I noticed there are four rough-service maids in the courtyard. Give these four jars to them.”
“Send this pair to First Miss, this pair to Second Miss, and this pair to Third Miss.”
“Give the rest to Second Madam and let her choose whichever ones she likes.”
“Give the plain purple jars Second Madam leaves behind to Concubine Xun, the Barbie-pink jars to Concubine Zheng, and the golden jars to Concubine Hu.”
Nanny Xu asked, “What if Second Madam chooses the plain purple, the Barbie-pink, or the yellow jars?”
“Second Madam likes sky blue. The four sky-blue jars were prepared for her. She’ll understand as soon as she sees them and won’t choose those three colors.”
“There’s a difference between the rouge for madams and the rouge for young ladies?”
“Of course.”
Married women’s rouge had both color and fragrance; unmarried girls’ had color but no fragrance.
The difference was enormous.
There were originally two jars of colored and scented rouge intended for the Cousin Miss residing at Shou’an Hall.
After thinking it over, Li Qu took them and slipped them into her sleeve. She had decided not to press a warm face against someone else’s cold behind.
“I’m hungry. I’m going to eat.” As she spoke, Li Qu headed outside.
Hongguo stepped forward and said to Nanny Xu, “I’ll deliver the things.”
Nanny Xu nodded. “There are a lot of items. If you forget which is which, ask. Don’t mix them up and ruin Concubine’s arrangements.”
She could tell that this was the concubine returning the gifts she had received.
It was also the diplomatic signal being sent from Fragrant Splendor Court.
The Zhou family’s third branch had finally gained a mistress of its own.